It is the end of February already, it has been a very quick month. I know that it is only 2 or 3 days shorter than a normal month, but it has really flown by.
We have had a very interesting month. The good news is, our lounge is now complete, but we have had to have all our electrics replaced. All we wanted initially was a couple of electrical sockets in the downstairs outside bar area, which all went according to plan.
We had also had problems with lights in 2 rooms, so we asked the electrician to have what we thought was a quick look. He was a bit horrified, he got his boss Giuseppe to have a look and then he looked horrified too and they had a look throughout the house, looking horrified. They spoke only Italian and we only spoke our very little Italian, but we got the gist of what was going on, something was not right. Then Giuseppe called Tony from the Calabria Realty Group to translate to us. Basically, our electrics were too old and were not in a fit state to be used and there were parts that were basically dangerous. So, of course, we had the electrics replaced.
Whilst they were there, we asked them if they could do anything with the corner with the old electric meter and yes, they could. So, after 3 days we had brand new electrics with emergency lighting inside and new external lighting, and the meter is now hidden behind some blocks with covered viewing hatches if the local electricity company need to see it. And, the orange stamping has finally gone from our lives! Yippee!! Obviously, we didn’t budget for new electrics but at least we know we are safe in our own home.
The guys who worked on the electrics and mini building work, were basically amazing, such a professional job, they even cleaned and mopped after themselves each day. They worked during St Valentine’s Day, so we decided to buy them cakes for a treat. They very much appreciated it, I think. The company was Giuseppe Scarfone Construction (Giuseppe Scarfone S.R.L. Costruzioni). So, if you need any work doing in Scalea and surrounding areas, I would definitely recommend.
A few days later the weather did kick off good and proper. I have never experienced anything like it. The wind was ridiculous! We had bad gusts of wind for about a week, sometimes with snow, sometimes with rain and also on a very sunny day. According to the windy.com app I found, there were gusts of up to 70mph.
Luckily, we didn’t have anything major happen to us. John had to do a small but necessary repair to our canopy over our terrace and our hibiscus plants had their leaves torn off by the wind. We did put everything that was outside and movable, inside and luckily our windows have shutters.
Unfortunately, around us there was some damage. Homes losing roof, satellite dishes bent, trees and bushes were uprooted or broken throughout the town. But one poor family lost complete windows to their holiday home near to us. We didn’t hear a thing, but the wind was so loud at times you couldn’t hear anything anyway. We just saw the damage the following day. Also, we lost our WiFi for a few days, which has been a real pain. It still isn’t working correctly, apparently Linkem engineers are working on it. But it is so slow, it is like going back to dial-up days, maybe not that bad but pretty close, it has delayed me putting this blog online.
All this when the UK was having the hottest February ever. Life can just throw things like that at you, can’t it? But we’re OK and at least it gave me something to write on this blog of mine. We were planning to visit somewhere local by train as we do not have a car, but hopefully we will get a chance next month, if the weather is good to us. The past couple of days have been lovely, as long as it stays pretty similar, we’ll be happy.
Finally, as I am writing this, we have just had a delivery of chairs that change into beds. They are basically single seat sofa beds, don’t really know what they are called. But it means we can now have more than 2 people come over to stay with us. We now have extra seating and extra beds depending on what we want. Let’s hope friends and family do come and visit us. It is a nice place to visit, honestly.
That is it from me, until the next time. I wish you a lovely March, at least spring is on its way!
